


Saturday the 15th of December 1984: The Day Eleven Came Home

by CamillaEmily



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Everyone Loves Eleven, F/M, Fluff, Little bit of angst, No Spoilers, Platonic Relationships, Reunion, Reunited and It Feels So Good, including me, the indulgent reunion/cuddle fic we all need after that season jesus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 16:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12611016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamillaEmily/pseuds/CamillaEmily
Summary: When Eleven shows up out the blue, alone and scared on the porch of Mike Wheeler, Mike doesn't know how to move. She's older, taller, hair longer, eyes dimmer, and lips quivering. As the feeling rushes back into his body with a force crushing enough to make his shoulders sag and tears well up in his eyes he misses the privilege to be the first to touch her as Dustin shoves past him but immediately shoots back as he feels the ice of her skin.(Alternatively: Eleven is understandably cold and her friends love her very much, one in a very different way to the others.)





	Saturday the 15th of December 1984: The Day Eleven Came Home

It was 7:30pm on Saturday the 15th of December 1984 when she came home. To this day no ones knows why or how she got there; every mentioning of curiousity being met with a far-away pained stare from Eleven and then a protective dirty glare from Mike. It didn't matter how she got there; it just mattered that she did.

She was skinny. Dangerously skinny with sharp cheekbones, a defined jaw and hands that were spindly and frail. But Mike didn't care. He wouldn't have cared if she was caked in mud, splattered with blood, and on the edge of death. Well, that was a lie, he would crumble to the floor and heave is she had shown up like that. But she was definitely close.

When she had stumbled into the door, Dustin's arm keeping her steady around her ribs as she had insisted on walking into the house, rejecting his motion to carry her - months of dirt, grass, snow, and whatever else constantly being the ground beneath her feet made her long for the comforting feel of the soft carpet and smooth hardwood floors of the Wheelers residence - the first words she mumbled into the shirt of the curly-haired boy were, "Cold."

Will reacted first, beating Mike by half a second, as he nodded quickly, instantly understanding the seeping chill that settled in your bones, making your whole body shudder and contract, and grabbed the blanket draped over the couch. Lucas took it from him to wrap snugly around her shoulders, but still, she trembled, eyes squeezed shut and jaw wobbling as her teeth chattered.

"Where's the warmest part of your house?" Lucas asked as Dustin rubbed her arms.

Mike's eyelids fluttered as he thought. The boiler was in the basement but was holed up a closet meaning its warmth was trapped there to be replaced by the chill that swept around the lowest room. The main pipe did go to his room, though, and memories of complaining to his mother about the stifling heat, even when he had his windows flung open to gratefully allow the freezing winter air to flood in.

"My room." He stated and everyone moved in an automatic blur. Dustin and Will brushed past him to take her to Mike's room and Lucas, followed by Max, ducked into the kitchen to search for a hot water bottle. Mike stayed stuck in the spot for a moment, the shock of the event still clutching him like a fortunate foggy haze - he needed to be focused. However he did make sure to thank God that his parents and Holly were out Christmas shopping as he slowly climbed upstairs. He followed down the path Dustin, and Will had taken, but, as he neared the door, he let out a deep breath that he was unaware of holding and pushed through.

The room was stuffier than he had anticipated, his woollen jumper suddenly feeling a bit too heavy as the windows were locked shut and his radiator was set to max. While Will was digging around in his closet to look for more blankets, Dustin was tucking El into Mike's Star Wars sheets, her face the only thing visible from under the layers of cloth. Her curly hair was wild and contrastingly dark against his white pillow, dusky eyes hidden beneath eyelashes sweeping across her gaunt cheekbones, and pink lips now pale and trembling. Will came back with another blanket, a little dusty from its previous place tucked in the far corner of his closet, and settled it onto her, now making three layers wrapped around her.

Dustin tucked a ringlet behind her ear, "You okay there, El?"

She squeezed her eyes shut as another shiver ripped through her body, shaking her head, "Still cold."

The loud, high-pitched whistle of the teapot erupted from downstairs which made El flinch, but Mike was there to settle her nerves, sat on the edge of the bed, his hand rested a little timidly on her stomach due to lack of knowledge on where her hand. He was too embarrassed to place it her face, no matter how much he wanted to. She smiled, thinly, but Mike was satisfied and moved his hand to rub her belly in reassurance.

A moment later, Lucas, accompanied by Max, appeared at the door holding a hot water bottle wrapped in a dish towel. They made their way over to her, Max lifting the bottom of her wad of blankets so Lucas could place it next to her icy feet. She hummed in thanks, rolled to the side facing all of them, snuggled into Mike's pillow and burrowed further into the thick blankets.

They watched her, face relaxing a little, shoulders hunched and the lump of her knees visible through the blankets as she curled in on herself, and they sighed in a mixture of worry and relief.

Will moved first, opening his worried mental note at the skinniness of her form, and mentioned how he knew how to make the soup his mom would cook him when he got sick and left to rummage around the kitchen for ingredients. Max went after him, feeling the prickling of the awkwardness of not completely knowing who the dirty and tormented girl was, with a notion of helping Will as she tugged on the sleeves of her jacket. With a look at Mike, who was staring wistfully, worryingly and disbelieving at El, a look at El, eyes closed and breath a lot steadier and more comfortable, and a look at one another, Dustin and Lucas left without a word.

Mike could hear them though. Talking about what they would do now, who they could go to, and how they would do it to not cause immediate panic so the 'bad men' wouldn't be alerted. Mike closed his eyes as to stop the oncoming of more stressful thoughts they triggered, and focused on where he was - at the problem at hand. His place on the edge of the bed, El practically curled around him, his arm now been moved to around her waist as she had shifted to her side, was moulded into him, making moving impossible. As he would look back later he realised that this may not have been just metaphorically; Eleven may have been using a portion of her powers to hold him there, but Mike would be adamant on that he would have never left her side anyway.

Her cheeks were now a healthier shade of pink matching her lips as the warmth gradually sank into her body, but she was still tremoring a little, the quick motion causing the pesky curl Dustin had previously taken care of to fall back in her face. She twitched as the ringlet ticked at her cheekbone and Mike automatically reached up to swipe it again. Her skin was still cold, a dull cold that gave a spike of anxiety him as it suddenly reminded him of a corpse. She noticed his hand pause rigidly and turned to look at him, eyes slowly opening to reveal the sleepy dark brown irises.

"Ok?" She asked quietly. Mike avoided her gaze as he nodded, bringing his hand back.

"Yeah, I'm okay." His voice shook. El frowned.

"Friends don't lie." She reminded. A smile tugged at his lips despite her firm tone and eyes.

"I'm worried," He murmured, hand trailing down her side. She waited for him to continue and her frown deepened when he didn't.

"Why?" She pressed. He met her eyes, dark irises swimming with unshed tears and he cleared his throat, looking up to blink rapidly.

"About you. About what happens now." They shuddered at the same time: Mike's voice and El's body. Mike's eyebrows draw together, mouth tightening as he takes in her cold and frail appearance, "Are you really still cold?"

She nodded, and hesitated for a moment, before scooting backwards on the twin-sized bed until her back hit the cold wall. She shivered again, and Mike leaned over to place a hand on her arm. She shrugged him off and turned his attention to her hand patting the spot next to her. Mikes cheeks darkened.

"You, you want me to um," He flounced, cheeks blushing brighter as she pulled back the heap of blankets to pat the mattress again.

He towards the door to see it closed and silent, his chest feeling a bit lighter as no one could wander in an disrupt them, but the tightness clenched again when he looked back at her adorable sleepy expression. Looking at the many blankets, he went to pull off his jumper when she caught his hand. He looked at her shaking her head, big dark doe eyes staring up at him and he decided slowly being roasted under the blistering heat of the covers was completely worth it to make her happy.

He shuffled under the blankets, already feeling the stifling warmth through his jeans making his face feel flushed but then Eleven was curling into him until her hair tickled his chin and his heart was beating so hard and fast it was the only thing he could focus on. Her head dipped further so it was leaning on his shoulder and his breath hitched, her own fanning to hit the exposed skin of his neck. Carefully and exceptionally nervously he reached out to tuck an arm around her, and slowly pulled her closer until her shoulder hit his chest and they were almost pressed against one another. She let out a shaky breath, and Mike admired how it made her form deflate under his hold on her as he tentatively began to stroke her back. She tilted her head upwards to nuzzle her face into his awfully soft comfortable woollen jumper, her nose brushing his neck and forehead slotting under his jaw.

Mike felt as if he was holding a scared animal, her body still trembling as he moved his arm under the pillow to underneath her neck, acutely conscious of every one of his movements as if one wrong move could scare her away. His heart fluttered when her hands, trapped between them, moved to settle laxly on his chest, her legs coiling around his, whole body yearning into his radiating warmth to remove the sunken cold of the Upside-Down.

When she spoke her words were muffled by Mike's thick jumper, but he didn't miss a syllable, "Missed you, Mike."

That's when the binds in his chest exploded, his breath heaving and tears filling his eyes as the shock wore off because she was here. Alive; body moving definitively as she breathed, heartbeat thumping against his arm, fingers twitching against his chest, eyelashes fluttering against his neck, hair climbing up his chin, legs shifting naturally between his, mouth speaking his name -

She only moved closer to him as his body tightened around her, choking sobs and wet cheeks buried in her hair. His swelling chest stuttered as his cries finally made a noise: a broken, wet, gasping gagging sound that Eleven hopes she never has to hear again. Her own tears stung at her eyes.

He sucked in a deep breath, sniffing severely, and his arm squeezed her for a short moment before relaxing as to let her roll back enough to see his face. His eyes were bloodshot, cheeks pink and swelling, eyebrows drawn together but angled as to emphasise the smile that stretched at his mouth. He swallowed through a sore and raw throat wanting her to hear, know and understand how much he meant his next words.

"I missed you too," He croaked, "So, so much."


End file.
